Shallow Water
by Olywood
Summary: He saves her, but she doesn't want to be saved.


Naruto does not belong to me.  
Rewritten on 10th July 2011.  
Behold! This amazing **crack!**pairing.

**Shallow Water**

Ino kicked off her shoes by the edge of the Nakano River, remembering to remove her kunai holster and forehead protector. She tipped the end tips of her dainty toes into the cool flowing water, filching at the sheer shock at the temperature of the water. The water continued to stream along the tops of her feet, her nerves still made her continue to twitch due to the vast difference between the air temperature and the water. She gazed down onto her feet, marvelling at how the clear the water was and how with every step she took the dirt along the bottom would cloud up the water. She turned back into the direction of the village; murmuring to herself her final goodbyes to the ones she loved. Without hesitation, she ploughed out deeper into the river battling against the raging currents. Without warning, she lost her footing and became overwhelmed by the quick flowing water. Her body, weightless drifted along poetically with the current of the water. She felt free, free from all the hurt and pain that she had felt during her life.

Free from chasing after Sasuke, she was no longer reaching out for him in theoretically impossible ways.

She began to choke on the water as she slowly began to sink gracefully, her pastel blue eyes slowly shutting as her oxygen supply was becoming quickly restricted.

* * *

XxX

.

* * *

She awoke several hours later in a hazy daze; she squinted up at the fire by her side flickering loudly. She noticed a tall built figure sitting across from her who appeared to be warming his hands with the aid from the fire. Ino noticed that this man had put something over her to keep her warm, the sleeve of the black cloak draped across her neck. She slowly raised herself off from the ground and started intensely at the clock covering her soaked body. She double blinked; she'd seen this cloak before. The distinctive red cloud design spread across the dark cloak, she sprung back up quickly and threw the cloak off and onto the slowly dying fire. The Kirigakure missing-nin quickly caught his prized cloak; he narrowed his eyes at her in an intimidating fashion "The fuck?"

She slung her blonde ponytail over her shoulder and begun squeezing the water out from her damp came to the quick realisation that she was an unarmed sixteen year old Konoha kunoichi who was alone with an S-class criminal; she shuddered at the thought of what he could've done with her whilst she was unconscious. Kisame pulled his cloak on, covering up his exposed grey shark-like skin.

He looked down at the kunoichi, "I believe a 'thank you' is in order."

She stared blankly up at the Akatsuki shinobi, "_Thank you?_ You're my hero," Ino replied sarcastically. Kisame made a feeble attempt at a smile before Ino interrupted him again.

"You bastards killed my friend Gaara, have tried to capture Naruto several times of which resulted in complete failure. Furthermore, you killed Asuma and oh… destroyed my village."

Kisame grabbed onto a clunk of flesh above his heart and slowly backed away from the angry blonde kunoichi, his smile mocking her subtly.

"Ow, that hurt."

Ino made a quiet snicker to herself, "Why did you save me? I didn't want to be saved."

Kisame folded his arms across his chest and moved back towards Ino, "I felt like saving your life on a whim, I don't usually do acts of kindness like this."

Ino narrowed her eyes again at Kisame, "Who are you and what are you doing in Konoha?"

Kisame paused for a moment, gently rubbing his chin before returning an answer, "My name is Hoshigaki Kisame and well, I'm in Konoha for no particular reason."

Ino snorted in a vaguely masculine way, "Bullshit, you're after Naruto, aren't you?"

"That didn't cross my plans, but if I see him, oh why the hell not," he smeared a sinister grin across his face. Ino scanned around the base of the fire looking for any sort of weapon she could use of kill him.

"Don't bother, you're weapon-less. You didn't even have anything on you when you went to 'end things' in the river."

Ino placed a hand onto her hip and initiated eye contact with the shinobi, "Can you really blame me to trying to be defensive? You're an S-class criminal who just happened to rescue me whilst I was going for a swim."

Kisame laughed, "You call that a swim? Princess, you must be a fucking terrible swimmer."

Ino removed her hand from her hip and began slowly pacing around the fire, "And I'm just the damsel in distress. Well I'm sorry,_ my hero_ but well, you're not really my type," she paused briefly for a mocking laugh, "You're no Uchiha Sasuke."

Kisame arched an eyebrow at the kunoichi, "Oh what a walking cliché you are, princess."

"Fuck off."

"Oh, the princess is feisty!"

"You've saved me now, so I'm going back to the village," Kisame quickly took a firm hold of Ino's right arm.

"You tell anybody about my presence here and I'll," his voice trailed off leaving Ino in a state of pure anticipation.

He leaned down and captured a deep kiss with the Konoha kunoichi, "Do that again."


End file.
